Brame sees a promising future for Thunder’s youngsters

WORTHING Thunder Basketball Club captain James Brame believes the club have a promising future after giving court-time to a number of former and current under-18 players recently.

Brame, who came through the club’s junior programme, has seen Liam Mitchell and Jack Sunderland progress from last season’s under-18 squad into the first team and, on Saturday, current under-18 players, Julian Stanley, who made his debut last week against London Leopards, Joe Carter and Rhys Francis all featured.

Brame said: “At the end of the game on Saturday, we had Jack, Rhys, Joe and Julian, who were all in the under-18 National Championship winning team last season, along with Tomas Sedukis, who is just 20, which is great to see.

“They’re the future of the club and it is a great advertisement for the club’s junior programme.

“They all came on, were unintimidated and it was great to get them some experience in games.

“We perhaps left it too late to get them into the game on Saturday. But once they’ve all practised a little more with the team, these guys will be playing major minutes for the club in the future.”

On getting more playing time, Sunderland said: “I definitely feel good getting extra minutes. It makes me feel more of a member of the team and shows that you can achieve something from working hard in practice.

“And, of course, the more you play, the more confidence you are going to gain, and makes me feel that I can bring something to the team in future games.”